The present invention generally relates to configuration management of a system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method, device and program for forming a CI (configuration item) corresponding to a system component for which discovery of configuration information is restricted.
Recently, as utilization of information technology (IT) is becoming essential for success in business, it is more and more important to effectively utilize an IT system to provide IT services. However, for a lot of companies, “complexity of an IT system” and “operation management cost” are heavy burdens. In such a situation, ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) (a trademark of the British government) has attracted attention.
ITIL is a collection of best practices for realizing IT service management. ITIL includes service support and service delivery, and the service support includes configuration management. Configuration management is a process for recognizing components of a management target system, maintaining, updating and checking information about the components, and performing auditing.
In the context of an ITIL framework, it is recommended to manage components using a configuration management database (CMDB). A CMDB is a database for recording the relations between at least one attribute of a component and other components. With the CMDB, an ability of detecting (discovering) and updating (tracking) information about the components (configuration information) can be obtained.
As a background art, for example, Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2004-0086729 discloses that responses to a ping command and SNMP information are acquired so that a result of analysis of a state close to the actual network configuration can be obtained from combinations of the response and the SNMP information. A network configuration information search section confirms the existence of each target device of the network by its response to the ping command, stores the confirmation result into a database as response result data. It also acquires SNMP information from each device, and stores the SNMP information into the database as search result data, together with information about whether the SNMP information has been acquired or not. A network configuration information analysis section analyzes the response result data and the search result data, and classifies the existence possibility of each device depending on whether the response and the SNMP information have been acquired or not. As for devices from which the SNMP information has been acquired, a corresponding connection relation is set. As for devices from which the SNMP information has not been acquired, a connection relation is set in consideration of other information such as an IP address.
As another background art, Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2001-0217832 discloses that a physical device configuration inside a network node is automatically detected in a network environment implemented with SNMP. An Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo request is transmitted from an administrator terminal implemented with an SNMP manager to each network device in a network node, and devices in an operating state are detected according to responses to the request. To the SNMP agent of each of the detected devices, a request for transfer of information stored in the management information base within the device is transmitted. The classifications of the devices existing in the network node are detected from the information stored in the management information bases returned. On the basis of acquired physical address and IP address correspondence information, a connection-destination device of each port of devices having a bridge function is recognized at an IP level.
As another background art, Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2006-0202283 discloses that an SNMP request for accessing an object identifier is distinguished. A method for extracting a monitored device connected via a network and related information with the use of an SNMP protocol is disclosed. By accessing a memory, access information for accessing a monitored device is acquired. The access information includes: (1) one kind of status to be acquired from the monitored device, and (2) an access character string to be used to acquire the one kind of status information from the monitored device. The access character string is analyzed to judge whether the access character string is stored. When the access character string is stored, then it is judged whether the access character string includes a predetermined character string.